Separation and Recovery of Greenhouse Gases Using High Free-Volume Polymers and Their Nano-Composites

The rapid increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from various industries into the atmosphere has become an important issues in recently years due to their long life times and extremely high global warming potential values. The objective of this proposal is to develop novel membranes for the separation and recovery of these GHGs. There are two-fold benefits using this technology: one is to reduce GHG emissions and the other is to recovery expensive gases as an incentive for industries. The literatures addressing the use of membrane technology to recover GHGs, especially the gases containing fluorine (F-gases), are very limited. These materials are based on polymeric films and exhibit a trade-off relationship between permeability and selectivity. The approaches employed in this study include the preparation of nano-composite membranes containing fumed silica and nano-zeolite. It is expected that this new materials will outperform the polymeric membranes in terms of permeability and selectivity. This proposal is a continued research based on the past NSC-funded project. We have found that PDMS/zeolite composite membranes exhibited excellent permeability and selectivity toward CO2/N2 separation. In this proposal, we’ll focus using the fluorine-containing high free-volume polymers in this separation. First of all, potential polymer materials will be screened based on their physical and chemical properties. Permeability of nitrogen and GHGs will be determined in the base materials. Secondly, nanoparticles of fumed silica and zeolite (with size-discrimination capability) will be incorporated to make the nano-composite membranes. These resulting membranes will be characterized on the physico-chemical properties to elucidate the effect of nanoparticle addition. Finally, the mass transport characteristic (including sorption, diffusion and permeation) of the gas separation process will be determined. Each focus will be executed in the three-year term. The success of this study will have many impacts on various areas. The findings will play an important role to advance our technology. The recommendations generated from the study can provide guidelines for the industry to choose an efficient material in the reduction of GHG emission. Meanwhile, the technology can be transferred to domestic companies to promote the commercialization of the membrane technology and to comply with stringent greenhouse gas emission regulations.

Project ID:PB9907-10761
External Project ID:NSC99-2221-E182-005